Clash of ideas as McNerney, Harmer meet at S.J. forum

Sunday

Oct 24, 2010 at 12:01 AMOct 24, 2010 at 8:32 AM

TRACY - Hundreds of supporters for both the Republican and Democratic candidates clapped, booed, cheered and jeered as they were crammed into Monte Vista Middle School to watch a forum for one of the tightest congressional races in California on Saturday night in Tracy.

Zachary K. Johnson

TRACY - Hundreds of supporters for both the Republican and Democratic candidates clapped, booed, cheered and jeered as they were crammed into Monte Vista Middle School to watch a forum for one of the tightest congressional races in California on Saturday night in Tracy.

The 11th Congressional District seat swung from a Republican to a Democrat in 2006, when Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, took the seat from Tracy's Richard Pombo. This year, San Ramon attorney David Harmer wants to reclaim the seat for the Republicans.

The forum was hosted by the Tracy Press and moderated by Press Associate Editor Jon Mendelson, who kept the crowd in check while asking the candidates a series of questions.

Harmer and McNerney were joined by a third candidate, David Christensen, a Tracy electrician running with the American Independent Party.

Jobs and the economy were the big topics on the night, and the two major party candidates differed sharply on their views of what caused the problems and the best way to get out of the persistent economic troubles facing the country and the district.

The bad times come from bad policies, not bad luck, and Democratic efforts undertaken while McNerney has been in office haven't fixed high unemployment rates or the economy, Harmer said.

"The so-called stimulus has been a catastrophic failure," he said, referring to 2009 legislation meant to jump-start the economy with increased federal spending. "So let's reverse course."

And in the longer term, he said, the failed policies will increase the federal debt that will be a burden on future generations. "It's not just expensive, it's immoral."

McNerney noted that the term of Democratic President Bill Clinton ended with a surplus, and the economic problems happened on a Republican president's watch. "Let's be clear on how we got to this economic situation," he said, adding that Wall Street and big corporations had been running amok.

McNerney said the way out is to provide corporate transparency, a level playing field and to provide tax breaks and access to credit for small businesses. He also said the country should promote clean-energy technology, and the jobs its manufacturing would bring.

"This area could be the Detroit of electric vehicles," he said.

The candidates traded barbs on the economy, education, Afghanistan and "earmark" spending.

McNerney said he'd helped bring a project to build to the atea both a medical facility for veterans and a power plant that would each create hundreds of jobs.

"I have brought money home for schools, police departments," a tutoring center and a women's center, he said.

"And I'd like to ask anyone here: Which one of these projects would you like to take off the table?"

Harmer said McNerney "boasts of his prowess of bringing home the bacon," but that it's all borrowed money. "I cannot imagine a more galling example of congressional arrogance. It is offensive."

The money has been borrowed from other countries, Harmer said, adding that he could create the illusion of popularity if he wrote millions of dollars worth of "hot checks."

McNerney said he was talking about people in the district.

"My opponent is talking about ideology. I'm talking about people."

The district encompasses portions of San Joaquin, Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties. San Joaquin County's piece contains more than half of the district's registered voters. Across the district, party registration is about even between the two major parties. Republicans and Democrats each claim about 39 percent of the voter registration.

A recent poll conducted for a Bay Area news station put Harmer in the lead, but the McNerney campaign countered with internal polling results that showed the incumbent had the edge. But handicappers in national publications, including The New York Times, have in the past week favored Harmer's chances.

Both sides had fired up crowds in Tracy earlier Saturday, though it seemed McNerney's had greater numbers.